I am thinking about building a sump, but I don't want to use circulation pumps anymore

[Jeremy Lain]

I was thinking about having a return pump that pumps well enough to circulate the water throughout the tank and give everything the water movement it needs. The reason for this is, I had circulation pumps in my reef tank and two of my anemones got sucked up into them and died; after this, I put panty hose over the circulation pump, but it sucked up everything circulating to the panty hose and looked really dirty in my reef tank. I don't want to lose another anemone to this.

So in the sump I will be using a filter sock, protien skimmer, I want a refugium, and a return pump after that.

I was hoping to get dual outs coming out of some sort of y maybe to circulate both directions coming out of that in to a 20 gallon. Is this possible? Do yall have a better idea?

Also I don't have a drilled tank. But I think I wan't to drill it this time. Is it hard to do? I am going to be purchasing a new return pump. Any suggestions. Please help me know how many gallons per hour I need to circulate though the sump, and what return pump size I will need to get. I don't want to spend a whole lot on this.

What overflow box do you recommend for a 20 gallon tall reef tank? What size plumping (pvc pipes) should I get?

 

[Jeremy Lain]

I was thinking about having a return pump that pumps well enough to circulate the water throughout the tank and give everything the water movement it needs. The reason for this is, I had circulation pumps in my reef tank and two of my anemones got sucked up into them and died; after this, I put panty hose over the circulation pump, but it sucked up everything circulating to the panty hose and looked really dirty in my reef tank. I don't want to lose another anemone to this.

So in the sump I will be using a filter sock, protien skimmer, I want a refugium, and a return pump after that.

I was hoping to get dual outs coming out of some sort of y maybe to circulate both directions coming out of that in to a 20 gallon. Is this possible? Do yall have a better idea?

Also I don't have a drilled tank. But I think I wan't to drill it this time. Is it hard to do? I am going to be purchasing a new return pump. Any suggestions. Please help me know how many gallons per hour I need to circulate though the sump, and what return pump size I will need to get. I don't want to spend a whole lot on this.

What overflow box do you recommend for a 20 gallon tall reef tank? What size plumping (pvc pvc pipes) should I get?

I was thinking about having a return pump that pumps well enough to circulate the water throughout the tank and give everything the water movement it needs. The reason for this is, I had circulation pumps in my reef tank and two of my anemones got sucked up into them and died; after this, I put panty hose over the circulation pump, but it sucked up everything circulating to the panty hose and looked really dirty in my reef tank. I don't want to lose another anemone to this.

So in the sump I will be using a filter sock, protien skimmer, I want a refugium, and a return pump after that.

I was hoping to get dual outs coming out of some sort of y maybe to circulate both directions coming out of that in to a 20 gallon. Is this possible? Do yall have a better idea?

Also I don't have a drilled tank. But I think I wan't to drill it this time. Is it hard to do? I am going to be purchasing a new return pump. Any suggestions. Please help me know how many gallons per hour I need to circulate though the sump, and what return pump size I will need to get. I don't want to spend a whole lot on this.

What overflow box do you recommend for a 20 gallon tall reef tank? What size plumping (pvc pvc pipes) should I get?

I found my return pump that I used before on a 55 gallon reef tank. Can I use this pump and put a ball valve after it somewhere on the pvc pipe going into the reef tank to slow it down? Is it bad for the pump if I put a ball valve to slow it down?

 

[foxt]

I was hoping to get dual outs coming out of some sort of y maybe to circulate both directions coming out of that in to a 20 gallon. Is this possible? Do yall have a better idea?

That is possible, and will provide more coverage than a single return in a 20h tank.

Also I don't have a drilled tank. But I think I wan't to drill it this time. Is it hard to do?

Drilling is not complicated. You need to be sure that the glass is not tempered, or else it will shatter. And you need a special glass hole saw that is designed to be used wet. You also need to be careful about getting too close to the edge of the pane of glass. Other than that, not hard at all.

I am going to be purchasing a new return pump. Any suggestions.

The pump you posted above will work fine. You can dial the flow down with a gate valve (not a ball valve), and this doesn't harm the pump. To the pump, it just looks as though you have more head on the output piping.

Please help me know how many gallons per hour I need to circulate though the sump, and what return pump size I will need to get.

How much flow have you had in the past with the power heads, and was that enough?

What overflow box do you recommend for a 20 gallon tall reef tank? What size plumping (pvc pipes) should I get?

I like the narrow internal overflow boxes, called "ghost" overflows. The plumbing depends on the flow you want, where your sump is located, etc.

 

[Jeremy Lain]

That is possible, and will provide more coverage than a single return in a 20h tank.

Drilling is not complicated. You need to be sure that the glass is not tempered, or else it will shatter. And you need a special glass hole saw that is designed to be used wet. You also need to be careful about getting too close to the edge of the pane of glass. Other than that, not hard at all.

The pump you posted above will work fine. You can dial the flow down with a gate valve (not a ball valve), and this doesn't harm the pump. To the pump, it just looks as though you have more head on the output piping.

How much flow have you had in the past with the power heads, and was that enough?

I like the narrow internal overflow boxes, called "ghost" overflows. The plumbing depends on the flow you want, where your sump is located, etc.

I am glad you said it is alright for me to use that pump, because I was hoping to go back to a 55 gallon some time. Would it be possible to use a y in a 55 gallon and would it be enough flow going using that pump, without the circulation pumps?

 

[foxt]

A 55 is trickier than a 20h. Depends on how much flow you want, where you want it. It will be more difficult to sweep the bottom of the tank, although you could y the return and plumb one outlet up high, and one down low. Also depends on how much head loss you are working with, how far away the pump is from the DT.

 

[Jeremy Lain]

I have decided to build a sump under my 20 gallon instead of moving to a 55 gallon reef tank, because I already have almost everything I need.

A 55 is trickier than a 20h. Depends on how much flow you want, where you want it. It will be more difficult to sweep the bottom of the tank, although you could y the return and plumb one outlet up high, and one down low. Also depends on how much head loss you are working with, how far away the pump is from the DT.

I have decided to use a 20 gallon reef tank. I am just going to keep going with a 20 gallon, because I have most of what I need. So how do you think I should plumb a 20 gallon and not use circulation pumps?

I want to use a 10 gallon sump under it with that return pump, alot of flow, so I will be using a gate valve to slow the flow where needed.

I want to drill this tank. I purchased a while back a over flow box that I had to siphon all the time when I turned it off and it wasnt fun; so I want to use the over flow box from that and cut the back off of it and silicone it over the drilled hole where the bulkhead will be. Here is a picture of that.

Do you think this will work? Here is a picture of the overflow box. I will post measurements if needed.

I have tried cutting glass before, maybe I didn't do it correctly, but the glass just split when I did it, and I couldnt use the piece of glass anymore. Is drilling going to be hard to do? I am going to purchase I drill bit. Links to instructions?

 

[Jeremy Lain]

This is what I want to do with the overflow box; I guess it is possible, because someone else did it. Here is a picture

On live aquaria's website it says that I need to have 4 times the water volume for flow turnover, so I guess I will need 80 gallons per hour with the gate valve.

My question now is how should I position the flow outputs in the tank so everything is getting enough flow and getting cleaned good?

 

[foxt]

I see you have started a new build thread with a title that may get you more attention for the questions you have now. I think we should continue this over there, it can get confusing having more than one discussion going on at the same time.

 

[WVNed]

The stuff to do what you want is all at Bulk reef supply. Diamond bits, bulkheads, overflows and Loc-line.
I just drilled a 75 gallon tank and added an overflow box and 2 returns

To drill a tank you need a variable speed drill, a diamond bit and water. You want very light pressure on the bit. The bit grinds the glass away while the water cools the bit.
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